By Sean Toh
What’s wrong with the world? As we scroll through the headlines of wars and crimes happening today, this question may surface in our thoughts. It has also been pondered throughout human history, for the darkness in the world is not something unique to our time. This often leads to lengthy discussions about the decline of human civilization, critiques of political and economic systems, and analyses of social and moral issues.
G.K. Chesterton answered this question in just two words: “I am.” Sin is not just out there, but deep within you and me. This is the essence of the words we say during the Penitential Act – that we have sinned, in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do, through no one’s fault but our own. It is easy to think that the world needs a Saviour, but the first step to conversion is recognising that we are deeply in need of one too. In the Ash Wednesday liturgy, we hear the resounding words of this call to repentance: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1:14)
In this Sunday’s Gospel, we’re provided with the reminder that it was into this sinful world that God sent his Son; not to condemn it, but so that through Him we might be saved. (cf. Jn 3:17) “Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man – though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:7-8) I pray that the scandal of the Cross, the immeasurable love of God, continues to grip your heart as it has gripped mine, allowing it to transform your heart. I find it beautifully expressed in the first verse of Abandoned by Benjamin William Hastings:
Somethin’ isn’t adding up
This wild exchange You offer us
I gave my worst, You gave Your blood
Seems hard to believe
You’re tellin’ me You chose the Cross?
You’re tellin’ me I’m worth that much?
Well, if that’s the measure of Your love
How else would I sing?
“Create in me a new heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Ps 51:10) Let us echo the cry of King David, trusting that God answers our prayers as He had promised before: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek 36:26) And He does so in the sacrament of Confession. In the confessional, a greater miracle is worked than at the tomb of Lazarus, for sin is a greater death than the cessation of bodily life. The words of absolution are the words of Christ Himself, pronounced over us with the same power as the words that created the heavens and the earth.
One of my deepest encounters with the Lord was hearing these words from His priest at Nox Gaudii last year. Standing bare before God with nothing to offer Him but my sins, the Lord met me with compassion and love. The weight of sin was lifted off my shoulders as His light shined through the darkness of my heart, making me a new creation once again. I had gone for confession feeling desperately in need of a Saviour, and left that night deeply reassured that I had one.
As we approach the final weeks of Lent and prepare our hearts for Holy Week, I invite you to make time for a thorough examination of conscience, ahead of receiving God’s mercy and forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2) There is no soul beyond the boundaries of His grace. If you have been waiting for a time to come back to God and allow Him to make things right in your life, know that our Father of mercies is already waiting for you to come home!
